


With Times Like These, Who Needs Calenders?

by DisneyMuse



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Christian Holidays, Fluff, Gen, Holidays, Implied bunch of holidays, Jewish Holidays, Platonic Relationships, Voltron Secret Santa 2016, Winter Solstice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 17:48:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9283169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisneyMuse/pseuds/DisneyMuse
Summary: Pidge had planned on trying to put something together for the holiday season. But that becomes more difficult when you're fighting an evil space overlord in giant robot lions. Especially when it's hard to even tell what day it is. But Shiro is determined to perk Pidge up!





	

**Author's Note:**

> Voltron Secret Santa for pidges-nest! Hope you enjoy!

“Pidge? Where are you?” Shiro called out as he walked the halls of the Castle of Lions.

It hadn’t taken a genius to figure out that their resident genius was feeling a bit under the weather.

Silence during meals that wasn’t even accompanied by tinkering.

Match after match being poorly lost during training.

Taking every opportunity to spend time away from the team.

Even Lance had noticed something was off.

Shiro had hoped that maybe giving Pidge a little space would help. They’d open up when they were ready.  But Shiro’s concern was growing. Each day seemed to only push Pidge into more of a slump. Maybe they just needed a bit more of a push in the right direction.

If only he could find Pidge.

Shiro had hoped to catch his teammate before any meals or training and talk with them in a more casual setting. But hunting the green paladin down proved to be more difficult than he imagined. Pidge wasn’t in any of their normal resting spots. Meaning he’d have to get creative. Hopefully before giving in and just asking Hunk if he had a way to electronically track down Pidge’s laptop that was most likely with them.

Shiro wandered down the corridors calling out for Pidge until he started to wonder if they were even still in the castle. Until they started to hear what sounded like music from a distance.

Moving forward, the sounds stopped. So did going backwards. Shiro had already checked the floor above for Pidge. Hm…

Extending his right arm high up to the ceiling, he gave it a push. The panel should have given way easily. Instead he got a scream of panic.

“I don’t know what you want, but I will find you! I have skills!” Pidge’s voice shouted out from above him.

“Er… I don’t think you’re going to have to look very far.” Shiro answered confused. “Are you alright up there?”

There was the sound of rustling equipment before the panel slipped open and Pidge’s head swung down. “Just fine!” Pidge shouted loudly. Right in front of Shiro’s face causing him to step back a bit.

The headphones were probably why Pidge seemed to be hard of hearing and where the sound of music came from.

“Wait… is that… Christmas music?” Shiro questioned.

Pidge’s head poked back in for a moment, coming out again just as swiftly like a wack-a-mole arcade game, only this time without their headphones.

“Not important!” Pidge quickly replied.

Shiro scratched his head. Somehow he highly doubted that. “What day is it, anyways? On Earth?”

If anyone had been hit hardest by the change in time from space travel, it was Shiro. He already had a hard time keeping track of time since he’d been abducted by the Galra- he had to find out later that he spent a year as their prisoner. His body had no idea what an Earth day schedule was supposed to be like anymore, let alone what day exactly it was now on Earth.

Pidge would know though.

Not as much for sentimentality reasons- more just to have some sort of comparison. They’d been the first to convert “Altean Time” and their day schedule into Earth time. The Castle Lions clock still went by an Altean work day, but Shiro knew Pidge still kept track of the days for record keeping purposes. No one asked much how long it had been since they started fighting Zarkon.

To be honest, no one really wanted to know how distant they were sometimes.

Pidge let out a heavy sigh. “Doesn’t really matter… We already missed all the fun stuff.” Pidge answered.

Pidge let down a hand to help pull Shiro up. It was a snug fit for the black Paladin, but he managed to pull himself through.

It was a wonder that Shiro noticed the music before the lights.

Suddenly all the missing small warning lights around the castle made sense.

The scattered lights were hardly a fancy display, but were more of a wild attempt to do the best with what was available. A makeshift nutcracker welded together out of a few old utensils sat in the corner guarding a menorah that used emergency flares for candles. A fireplace made out of twigs. A handmade paper crown. The remnants of dozens of holidays laid scattered around the hidden hole in the ceiling.

“The last away mission we were on… got so caught up in it, I hadn’t checked the date for a while. Hunk and I had been planning all kinds of stuff all year. I still haven’t even told him it’s January.” Pidge said stacking a small painted makeshift drum beside the holiday shrine.

“Last holiday season was the worst…” Pidge mumbled.

It hadn’t been spent lightyears away from home, but it certainly felt like it. Dad and Matt were missing- proclaimed dead by the rest of the world. It didn’t matter how much they shouted it wasn’t true. How much they tried to assure mom there was a chance they were still alive. It didn’t change the fact that they weren’t home. And there was no telling if they’d ever be home. Days that were once filled with chaotic family gatherings were reduced to silent quick meals where Pidge holed themself away trying to stay distracted.

“I wanted it to be different this time… But maybe it’s better we didn’t remind everyone how much they missed.” Pidge whispered. Not like what they put together here was the ideal celebration anyways.

Shiro’s hand cupped Pidge’s shoulder. “I’m not sure… The year before that… Probably the best holiday dinner I’ve ever had. Not that I’m even still sure _which_ holiday it was. But I wouldn’t mind another like it.”

Pidge’s mouth curled into a faint smile. “It’s our sort of tradition… to cram as many traditions into one season that is. It started as me and Matt’s way of squeezing as many presents out of the year as we could. We’d try and dig up as many new traditions each year as we could. Especially the weird ones.”

“I hadn’t had a home cooked meal in years… so your father insisted I came over too. Wanted me to pitch in and ‘share my traditions too.” Shiro reminisced. Frankly, he thought he’d been imposing at the time, but the Holt family was a lot more welcoming than he’d expected.

“And you brought a bucket of fried chicken!” Pidge exclaimed with a snicker.

Shiro let out an embarrassed chuckle. “Well… it’s actually not as uncommon as you’d think!” He insisted. “Although it was a lot easier to continue with on my own. I don’t suppose we could get Coran to put together anything like that now… or anything resembling chicken for that matter.”

“Nope… probably be weird anyways after that planet of chicken-people.” Pidge admitted. “But hey, flying on someone with actual wings was fun!”

“I prefer giant robot space lions to do the flying.” Shiro admitted. It was hard to be taken seriously riding into battle on the wings of chicken-men.

But it felt good to see that Pidge was starting to perk up a bit. “We’ve all had a rough time since we left home… But not all of it’s been bad. And that doesn’t mean we have to give up everything we’ve left behind either.”

Pidge sighed, picking up a few of the paper snowflake decorations. “Still won’t be the same…”

“It doesn’t seem like any one of your holidays are the same.” Shiro admitted. “Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have them.”

Maybe it was partially to have some sense of normalcy among all these space battles. And maybe it was just that they needed a break. But Pidge agreed, maybe we should go through with it.

“Alright… but we make it a surprise.” Pidge said with a smirk.

And sure enough, overnight without anyone noticing, Shiro and Pidge managed to hang at least a little something down from each corridor of the Castle of Lions. Like magical rodents in the night, they silently transformed the ship into a winter wonderland.

Coran thought they were under attack.

Allura was excited to partake in all of the different Earth holiday traditions.

Hunk, even though having helped with most of it was excited to see each little hand carved ornament that he made hung with care.

Keith rolled his eyes at the entire display, but cracked a smile when he didn’t think anyone was looking

Lance was the last to notice what was going on, but was quick to join in on making makeshift decorations, no matter how “abstract” they looked.

Shiro was just relieved that his team seemed to be easing up a little.

 And even if Pidge still missed their family, they were happy to have a new one to spend the holidays with.


End file.
